The Trust Working Committee

The second phase of the proposed Killie Trust began on Wednesday the 16th with the first meeting of the working committee. There are approximately 16 fans in the group and these are the people who will steer the Trust to its first AGM in the autumn time. Association Chief Colin Hargreaves has been voted on as interim chairperson until the AGM. The purpose of the meeting was to formulate the Trust rules, democratically setting out objectives & regulations and to give the Trust its new name. Although it will be referred to as the Killie Trust, its constituted legal name will be the KILMARNOCK SUPPORTERS SOCIETY LTD.

The meeting will reconvene on the 22nd to

complete the rules with a combined meeting with the

Association on Tuesday the 29th in the Park Suite to inform the gathering fans of our decisions. All Killie fans are more than welcome to attend on the 29th to have a say or listen to our proposals. The rules will then be sent to a law firm in Manchester to be legalised with the Scottish Executive footing the bill through the Trust help team of Supporters Direct.

The following months will be a little quiet with the committee working hard behind the scenes setting up corporate memberships, fan memberships, banking details & media work. The actual date for the Trust Launch has not been confirmed, but it will be around the start of the new season. So please bear with us.

Season Ticket Update

Firstly let me clarify a printing error in last week's column. Current season ticket holders have until 2nd May to renew if they want to keep their seat and not May 22nd as stated last week. That's just over a week so get over to Rugby Park quickly if you want to retain your seat. I was over at Rugby Park last Friday and was talking to Debbie who's in charge of selling the season tickets. The girls are working very hard at making this scheme a big success and are delighted with sales thus far especially when you consider there are still over three months until the start of next season.

The girls were even working on Easter Monday to ensure fans could buy their ticket during the Easter holidays. We are meeting David Heath this week to discuss the marketing of the offer and I'll give you an update of what happened in next week's column. The Share Centre is as busy as ever but the easiest way to get full advantage of the offer is to find your own partner so get asking all your friends and family to join you at the Theatre of Pies next season. Call Sandy on 0774 771 8754 if you want more information about the Share Centre.

Fourth Not Good Enough

We wrote a wee article a few weeks ago concerning the confusion that surrounds the UEFA Cup qualification. At the time we were led to believe that if Celtic won the league then 4th place might see us in Europe however that no longer appears to be the case. An article in the papers last week explained that third place in the league qualifies for the UEFA Cup along with the winners or runners up in the Scottish Cup. The beaks seem to change their mind on this issue on a daily basis however this does appear to be the final decision. With Hearts beating Celtic last Saturday it's going to take a mammoth effort for Killie to overhaul them so we may have to put the passports away for another year, unless they change their minds again of course.

Blueprint For The SPL

A quick look at the attendance figures in any newspaper on a Monday is as much evidence as you will need to prove that our national game is on the slippery slope to oblivion. Out with the twisted sisters there are really no clubs who are not suffering to some degree, the irony of course being that the lions share of the blame lies firmly, in our opinion, at the feet of Celtic and Rangers.

The big question is - how can we halt this slide and indeed, reverse the trend of falling attendances? The obvious answer is to slash the prices to encourage the fans back, and the simplest solutions are often the best ones, that's why the Killie 125 campaigners chose that route. While I'm chuffed that our own club have taken on board what we were banging on about, I feel that the Scottish game as a whole could be doing a lot more to help itself back off it's knees. It shouldn't be left to a handful of fans to do the necessary.

The first issue that should be addressed is the size of the leagues, especially the top division. In years gone past the number of teams was reduced because it was felt by the 'bigger clubs' that there were too many meaningless end of season fixtures and they wanted more games among themselves to effectively increase attendances and in turn income. Well in my opinion we have come to a similar point where it's time we recognised the failings of the current system and changed things again. I see the benefits of a larger division as follows:-

1) Players and fans are sick of the sight of one another and reducing the meetings to once at home and once away would remedy this.

2) As with the above, playing the OF only once at home and once away would be more of an incentive to players to get a victory - making each game like a cup fixture for the OF and increasing the chances of an upset. And the more points they drop the more open the league would be.

3) Okay, some of the newly promoted teams might get a gubbing by the OF, but since when have football fans not enjoyed watching a high scoring game and who's to say that teams like ours wouldn't get the chance to stick a few more in the pokey as well?

4) Only playing the OF four times mean less points dropped to them and should potentially allow the teams who currently languish in the top six to stay a lot closer to the top of the table...i.e. the league is not all over for everyone bar the OF by Christmas.

5) If you only visit each ground once that is more of an incentive for away fans to travel.

Okay, on the down side we would have less home games and the clubs would lose out on some walk in revenue, but that could be offset be re-introducing sections in the league cup instead of it's current format, and possibly awarding it it's European place back. Another boost for the 'wee clubs' and the competition that no one can be bothered with.

There would still be the problem of meaningless fixtures at the end of the season, but you can't tell me we don't have that at the moment with four of the top six possibly going into Europe next season and no relegation for the bottom six! Maybe they wouldn't be as meaningless if indeed the clubs out with the OF started to narrow the gap due to some of the points mentioned above.

Change the points structure. The introduction of three points for a win was to encourage away teams to have a go. How many sides do you see going to Glasgow and attacking in numbers? Not many that's for sure although there is the odd exception. The only thing that it has done is allow the sisters to pull away from the pack even earlier and leave a massive gap. How about we have three points for a win, two for a score draw, but only one point for a no score bore? We'd soon see the return of the 2-3-5 formation and exciting attacking football would attract the crowds back!

Next on the agenda should be the fixtures list. We should offload the current computer that generates the SPL fixtures and do it manually again, making sure that every club is home and away on alternate weeks. At least we would know when and where we were coming and going then...and there would be some sort of logic to the fixtures list which is totally beyond comprehension in it's current form.

Imagine actually being able to plan what games you could go to or not and being able to organise your work/shifts/social life/whatever round about when Killie are at home! So many people are currently lost to the game simply because there is no point in them buying a season ticket due to daft fixture and kick off changes, especially at the last minute. The SPL should get a grip on that as well, when it comes to TV companies the tail is now wagging the dog. We should decide on a day and a time for the TV games and stick to it.

Back to the playing side of things, the under 21 league should be done away with and the reserve teams brought back. In reality it's not helping the Scottish game as a whole, simply hindering managers organising their squads which is detrimental to the development of young players in the long term. Allow the Under 21's to play with the Under 18's in some sort of an expanded youth league. Having to have Under 21 players on the bench is mince as well (you don't get good sitting on your back side for 90 minutes), if you are going to have that then why not go the whole hog and insist you have at least two Under 21 players in the starting eleven?

The real crux of the matter though of course, as mentioned earlier, is the price. It's fantastic to see that Killie are brave enough to fly the flag but I feel that the other clubs should be considering similar cuts in their season ticket prices so that being a season ticket holder is once again considered the norm. With that in mind, I also think that the walk in price for any SPL game should be standardised so that both sets of fans are paying the same price for the same game, wherever it is played and whoever is playing. The price should be around 15-20 quid and this would make cheap season tickets even more attractive to fans and encourage them to pledge their support and cash at the start of the season.

To be fair I've only covered a few points here and I've been trying to write this for days now. Every time I thought I had it finished I though of something else so I'm putting it up now before I change my mind again! The bottom line is (or 4th bottom as the case may be) that there is plenty of scope for the SPL to help itself and the Scottish game into the bargain if only they have the balls change things before it's too late...think I'll get Roger Mitchell's old job? I have the perfect CV…I talk mince and know nothing about football!

Read the B&H column in the Kilmarnock Standard every week